The difference between a good TCG player and a great one is their ability to see winning lines through multiple turns in the future and playing to your outs no matter the situation. Deck building is a completely separate skill that you can be good at.
ive played over 5 different card games in my life, there is a skill threshold to where rng is your greatest enemy BUT there is a ceiling beyond that where you ride the rng wave and either make you play based on most common rng, or playing against your the strongest version of your enemy, you never know what theyve got but you know your outs, you know your odds, and you then act accordingly making plays to maximize good luck and minimize the bad
31:45 Actually pokemon don’t heal when they evolve it’s just the next stage has higher hp. If machamp is 180 hp and machoke is 100 then if your machoke gets hit for 30 and then you evolve it the hp will go from 180-30=150 hp. Basically just subtract the dmg your Pokemon takes from the next stage and that’s what you get when you evolve
Like other people have said, the skill in card games like Pocket is about playing toward your outs, and in conjunction with that, playing around your opponent's outs. Examples in Pocket are healing to avoid getting KO-ed by Gio, not evolving or not putting down mons to play around Sabrina, etc. What can seem like little adjustments can make a big impact in the game. Also want to mention resource management. In Pocket and other games where you ramp up resources, putting an energy on the wrong mon at the wrong time can straight up lose you the game.
Speaking for myself on TCG Pocket in particular, the RNG can absolutely define the game and the experience. The Coin Flips alone possess some of the strongest effects in the game (if you get heads). Normal Moltres - 130 Damage Normal Articuno - Paralysis Moltres EX - Free Energy Misty - Free Energy Any Card with Sleep - 50/50 Coin Flip on whether you can attack or retreat for the turn. Marowak EX - 160 Damage And that’s just the coin flips.
I don’t think u actually gain health back when u evolve. It’s just equals however much health u lost before u evolved. Like if growlith gets hit with a 20 and goes down to 50 when u evolve he’ll be at 130 health cuz 150-20=130. I think that’s how it works
As someone who has been a competitive tcg player for about 20 years I'll let you in on how to minimize your reliance on luck. There will always be luck and rng, but the better players will often win more times than not. That's because you reduce the need for luck in the deck building process by making it as consistent as possible and learn what the best lines are when you're in a disadvantageous position and not just always trying to do the same thing every game. Tcg's aren't just ability to play, but at least 1/3 of the skill involved is deck building ability. This is less true nowadays where everyone just copies people that already perform well, but before the days of everything being posted on the internet the same day they win an event, if you weren't a good deck builder you weren't a good card game player. These players are called net deckers and there are more of them now than good deck builders. The reason I bring this point up is because it's often the good deck builders who win events with their deck to make the decks popular for everyone who isn't as good to copy, so being a good deck builder gives you an advantage still, especially when cards are new or the meta hasn't been fully solved yet. I will admit there are good net deckers who can play very well and once they have a good deck in their hands they can perform, but they will always have a slight disadvantage going against something that hasn't ever been seen before, especially if what they haven't seen is an actually competent deck. This game has a bit more luck than most tcgs with a lot of coin flips on cards and nothing is going to help if they open with a Misty on turn 1 and flip 3+ heads. That's when you just scoop and go next. This is why all tcg matches are best of 3, to reduce variance and the chance of winning and advancing through a tournament on sheer luck.
I wouldn't say card games have a lower skill ceiling just a different one, cause just picking up the best deck isn't necessarily if you're making bad plays, and it is possible to just get outplayed by someone with a worse deck. Luck of draw to some extent can be minimalized with skilled deck building, and playing through a bad hand takes some skill as well. Obviously a different type of skill than the quick reflex skills needed for fighting or shooting games but skill all the same. Pokemon is a bad example though because of how prevalent coin flips are which adds an additional layer luck that makes it feel like skill doesn't matter if you get lucky, also evolutions means you not only have to draw the right cards but you have to draw them in the right order too, so yeah this game is a rng nightmare
YGO is in my opinion (and i might be biassed) the highest skill ceiling tcg out there. The way its played competatively is very centered around the extra deck being options you can use to answer anything your opponent does. It reduces A LOT of the rng factor that i normally see in other tcg's, and turns a game's outcome to who was better prepared and who had the better theory-crafting. The only argument of rng being needed is the ratio of drawing engine:non-engine in a ygo starting hand (you typically wanna see 1 starter, 1 extender, and 2-3 non-engine)
There's definitely luck based factors that completely control certain games (like Vanguard) but most other TCG's, especially the big 3 (Pokémon, Yugioh, Magic) reward a player with superior deck crafting and an eye to see their own lines to victory while playing through their opponents. Much like in a fighting game being able to read yourself and the situation can help you along. Sure there's a limit with RNG at play but it's not as heavily weighed in a lot of games.
You have not been informed correctly on which card to start, but im happy you are winning. Moltress always Starts because it gives Energy to your bench. Then you swap into your bench after they're ready
I definitely agree about everything you said, and yeah fighting games. Do you have more of a ceiling than card games but both take skill to a certain degree. For card games I would say it’s more strategy as you set for deck building and knowing your opponents decks and combos and what not to counter them like in Yu-Gi-Oh, there’s a lot of combos and floodgates and trapped and spell so you need to use your cards accordingly to make your neck act well and your opponent or just win straight up
I’ve been playing a less refined version of this deck since the game came out (no re card and potion for a second growlithe and Sabrina) and it’s super strong imho and I think works in this meta, especially since pikachu EX is sitting at 120 which can be one shot by both boss mons.
The key to building your deck is to ensure that every card you draw can contribute to your strategy, even if it's not perfect. The goal is to create a situation that can stall your opponent for a while. It's important to understand both your own game plan and to anticipate what your opponent is trying to achieve.
The rng in this game specifically is so worse compared to literally any other. Someone who knows what they’re doing will brick exponentially less because their decks are designed specifically not to. Formats will usually support this, but this game is just basically pure luck for right now at least. Needs more or better support cards/ cards that don’t use coins.
Yea I got pissed and ran a machamp,hitmonlee/chan deck and got like 7 wins in a row. It’s unbelievable how consistent it is and I don’t need no wack coins to ruin my games
@ I tried out a machamp and marowak deck and the amount of times I lost because I hit double tails was unbelievable lol. I gotta try that out sometime.
@@OceanAlchemist trust me I feel you. I stopped using marowak simply because of the rng. With the hit bros you can hit for 30 anywhere on the field and machamp literally crushes everything else. It’s like the fighting type version of a Blaine rush deck
My favorite pokemon is arcanine and when the game came out I built a very similar deck to this except I only had one arcanine and moltres due to pulling only one of each. But I was touting to my brothers that I think it’s the best deck so I feel validated. Thanks, lotus!
I definitely agree about everything you said, and yeah fighting games. Do you have more of a ceiling than card games but both take skill to a certain degree. For card games I would say it’s more strategy as you set for deck building and knowing your opponents decks and combos and what not to counter them like in Yu-Gi-Oh, there’s a lot of combos and floodgates and trapped and spell so you need to use your cards accordingly to make your deck acts well and your opponent or just wind straight Up
This is why I like yugioh better. In yugioh, my mindset has always been regardless of what I draw for my opening hand. I need to have something I can do to survive to the next turn. It's hard to brick in duel links and master duel, but I've found it very easy to brick in this game regardless of what I try to do. Starting with only 1 Pokémon while going first and then dying upon the opponents first or 2nd turn is really common online
Bricking in MD definitely ain’t hard but there’s more variety in those games than this tho. And it’s actually harder to brick in this game since you automatically start with a basic and with everyone most likely running 2 pokeball and 2 prof research you’ll have some type of start up. The problem is that it limits you to 20 cards and 2 of each and that’s causes you to not have an evolution or out after a few draws. Plus the opponent hits you when you aren’t ready it’s just a mess rn. They need to introduce more cards asap because meta slaves are just stomping the casual game into the dirt
@@KodexKatreally limited to 12-14 cards when you consider the mandatory (Professor’s Research, Pokeball, Sabrina, ect). The variance deck to deck is super limited like you said
@ yea I’m ngl I put the same 11 support cards in every deck and it’s annoying not having the proper space needed. Idk what card game has a deck count this low and is still played today
When you evolve a pokemon, it takes into account current remaining HP AND how much additional max HP the evo has, eg:- Growlithe had 10 HP remaining out of 70, Arcanine increases the 70 threshold to 150 (ie, +80 max health). Therefore, your new Arcanine HP post evo is (10+80)/(70+80 )= 90/150.
Rng for me makes wins more fun and losses hurt less. Because like what are you going to do if you don't draw the card you need. But like getting bad odds to work is really fun.
Also I think card games do have a high skill ceiling when it comes to deck building. But maybe not so much during combat when compared to fps or other games. But I definitely think card games are more open to people who are new to the games, especially older people.
Deck building and planning several steps ahead for outs plays such an important part in this game. I enjoy it, but sometimes that luck factor just hits you with a hard “NO”
I see that you're still learning so here are some tips: 1.- The first game you were able to win faster if you saved your Sabrina instead to use it right away 2.- If you evolve a pokemon who has some damage the damage is still the same when evolving for example, if a pokemon with 50hp get attacked for 10hp so now is 40hp then if the evolution is 100hp the pokemon will get 90hp when evolved 3.- No matter what matchup you are you always want to put Moltres in front, that deck is high risk high reward and puting Moltres in the bench is like having Misty in a water deck and not using it
I remember commenting on a UA-camrs channel in reply to a comment about pikachu. They were running og zard. Told them to add arcanine. Good to know I had a feeling it was a good card. I was nervous about the 20 damage but it’s irrelevant against most decks
Id say it really depends on the card game, luck is definitely always a factor, but some games, like yugioh, there are so many decks that have a lot of "starter" and "consistency" cards, it makes skill take the forefront to winning a game.
As an MTG player, redundancy in that game is key. Having ways to get your win con out asap is crucial and basically force your opponent to play your game instead of theirs.
The amount of times I've accidently put energy on the wrong pokemon... Great games, Lotus! I've not played a deck so half and half between Pokemon and Items/Supporters. That might be my own bad deck building though. What's your typical ratio?
if you ever get bored with youtube maybe try radio/podcasting. you got a nice voice man i’m jealous lol also, rng is why i put down VGC. flinches, paralysis, burn chance, freeze chance, FUCKING SLEEP, crits, misses, dmg calculations are all infuriating on the bad receiving end.
The charizard was the first pack I invested in going in completely blind since im a sucker for the fire lizard ever since 1995 glad to see the boy back
I love TCGs they’ve always been so fun to me. There is a degree of skill. Top players don’t make many if any mistakes most games though. I’d say card games it’s more strategic than skill. That being said you are still rewarded for playing good. Pokémon is probably the most luck based and some games basically take luck out of the game after your opening hands. In Pokemon pocket it feels worse because of the evolution feature. Making bricks more likely. Other games constructing a deck the has barley any bricks isn’t that hard.
24:10 however much you lost on the pre evolved is how you will lose when you evolve 100hp - 50 damgae 50hp left Evolved pokemon with 200hp 200hp - 50 150 after evolving it
Yea, luck is that X factor. You can set up a deck to put out certain cards or get your win cons ASAP. Knowing your opponents' gameplay def helps even if you're not getting the cards you need. If you can stall or stop your opponent, you can buy yourself time. Depends on the game of course.
i personally feel like TCGs have a higher skill level because of all that goes into it and it differs from game to game, but i do agree that RNG can really dominate success or failure
I eat Mewtwo's and Pikachu's for breakfast. Easily my weakest decks and they are decentlu stacked. Fire is SO GOOD which I love because I main Fire Types in the Pokemon video games. I got all the Charizards except the immersive one, and I have been GRINDING for Arcanine for DAYS! Imma have to use my points. Anyways this game is pretty addicting, especially if you played or collected Pokemon Cards as a kid
I guess I’m technically playing Meta in a way the most fun I have is running rapidash/ninetails Blaine decks lol. It’s probably the strongest non ex deck imo but somehow still feels weak sometimes to most decks. The one time I try to run charizard ex moltres I ran into a cool gardevoir jynx deck that rocked my shit lol
Having only played Yugioh & Magic the luck factor in this game seems unusually large. Maybe newer card will come out and change that, but a lot of these games I'm watching really come down to who has the best luck. Right now the best you can do is fix the card ratios correct to limit how much you brick.
the damage amount stays the same equivalent to the pokemon health so if a staryu takes 20 dmg its goes from 50-30 and when u evolve it to starmie ex itll have 110 of its 130 cause it still took 20dmg
Game 1 you needed to put that energy on moltress. Use the energy ability to get extra energy for Zard, you shoulda kept charmander instead of evolving and used x speed, brought Zard in to destroy his card and you clap each card he brings in and keep using moltress energy gathering ability to keep Zard attacking
2:50 usually card games are mostly strategy and just purely about outskilling but right now the game has so few cards and so few consistency boosters that it is kinda rng. Rng and also tier placements cause there’s a clear hierarchy of decks atm and there’s few actual flex options decks can run that help the weaker side of the game so the game can feel incredibly rng at times or just a complete wash cause your deck is simply worse
Objectively they are easier but I don’t skill ceiling is the right term. Understanding how to play this game well is a skill. It’s just other games have an execution barrier
Personally i would take out a moltres EX and add another growlithe You dont need Moltres EX save for the one time and having two arcanines can be more beneficial If not then replace with a gio or a sabrina
TCG Pocket is a poor first impression when it comes to skill in tcgs. In other games, skill expression not only comes from identifying win cons, but also knowing how to sequence your plays during your turn to maximize the draw potential for a particular result, or playing around the scenario where you miss what you’re trying to draw. As fast as it is, the current standard format in pokemon’s main tcg has a lot of room for skill expression with a deck like gardevoir ex, miraidon ex, terapagos dusknoir, or regidraco vstar
I don't think rng necessarily "lowers" the skill ceiling. You still need a lot of knowledge to play the game optimally with energy, the numerous decisions, and the decision to rely on that rng. It does make games way more unstable and sacky, though. Pocket is just the most unstable game. So many decks fall apart with bad rng, but there's skill also in deciding if you want more stability or power.
There's RNG to this game, yes, but this is a condensed version of a card game. Most of the other major cards I'm aware of have various ways to get to what you need to do your plays so the amount of RNG is actually significantly lower than one might expect at a glance.
15:41 Ngl, I feel like the microphone is rigged for whenever you ask for three tails for the opponent to immediately give 3 heads. Seen it happen too many times.
Rn the meta supports the high risk high reward playstyle, the card pool is too small and too simple to manipulate your chances for solid strategies, instead we have general game plans hoping for good coin flips. This is also why mewtwo and Pikachu were considered the best decks for the longest time, they have the least amount of rng with high attack power.
Game 2 you shoulda used moltress ability and stack energy on charmander before you used x speed and retreated Edit: you should of also been using moltress ability every turn and keep stacking energy on Zard on the bench
I’ve always preferred turn based over fast paced. ie Honkai star rail over genshin impact, pokemon and yugioh over fighter/shooter games. One takes thinking and one takes hand eye coordination and reflexes. We all have different skills and preferences. I suck at shooter games. I’m good at card games.
I'm starting to not like stage 2 pokemon, the game makes me brick enough as is, not seeing the stage 1/2 or seeing it a turn to late is infuriating, we seriously need the ultra ball support card or something, plz just give me more consistency. Also going first is so ass, there's zero benefit, being able to evolve your pokemon a turn earlier than your opponent is a mix bag if not kinda useless.
Why did you not switch the Moltres EX to Charmander in front so it would set upnenergy at the backline instead of charging energy your Charmander at the back?
Built this deck and its significantly worse than my usual charizard deck. Arcanine was a dead card in my hand everytime i drew it. The arcanine build lost to a dark deck while my charizard with no arcanine build just took down a fully fed mewtwo ex with gardevoir on the bench with no problem.
when you evolve your pokemon you dont heal any damage. if my staryu has 50 hp and it takes 20 damage, when i evolve into my starmie which would have had 130 hp is just 110. the damage never left. only exception are the koga cards and the fossil cards. because they have full hp recoveries when going back into your hand.
It looks like they carry on the damage that they already had. So if your Pokemon takes 20 damage and you evolve them they will be missing 20HP from their evolve state.
Having played Yu-Gi-OH TCG I'd say theres damn near nowhere near the amunt of RNG in most TCGs as opposed to Pokémon. Many coin flip mechanics, no real searching options, and IRL they have a game mechanic where you remove random cards from your deck before even playing (even further RNG) .. At last in Yu-gi-oh and Pokemon (IRL TCG) there are many cards that search for specific cards which kind of cuts down some of the RNG ... But yea overalll, RNG is king so I avoid all coin flips as much as possible lol
Heart of the cards is real, bro. The best decks lose to the luck of the draw, period. Idk how often you play other Pokémon games, but even VGC has a lot of luck components. Even damage numbers aren't finite. It's just the game, I guess. Just expect to account for luck when deck building. You even see it here in the deck you're using. There's 2 Arcanine even though there's 1 Growlith. Just to give yourself the best odds to pull it when you need it.
RNG is ruining the game for me imo. It’s demoralizing to lose simply because you missed all of your coins and your opponent hit all of theirs. At least In yugioh you don’t need to hit a coin for every good ability you want to cast. You’ll have more fun if you don’t play meta I feel like meta slaves ruin the game too esp when there’s no rank mode so no real reason to tryhard with the best decks. The best pocket videos out rn they’re playing whatever creative deck they put together and it’s definitely a good feeling when you wack a meta slave with a trash eevee deck for fun
You don't recover any health when you evolve you're pokemon you just add the health from the evolved form if you took damage before you'd still have that damage in the evolved form
I pretty much made this deck before people started using it. I dont have the second arcanine and not the exact same support and item cards, but it was very close. Why have two arcanines?
Card games have very very different levels of skill required, this pokemon game with so many coin flips, small deck size and card pool, there’s not really any room for innovation and it boils down to a ton of rng but if you play a card game like version 1 gwent or yugioh with over 10k cards and no rng effects it still will have rng because it’s the nature of a card game but you’re not beating a ycs winner 99/100 times as a new player
The WHOLE POINT of moltress is to put 1 energy on it and use the ability every single turn to stack energy on your bench! Everytime you put energy on charmander instead I’m yelling at my phone like nooooo put it on moltress for the ability plsssss! 😅
Coming from Yugioh where luck is minimized GREATLY and then playing PocketTCG where you can live and die by coinflips…i sort of hate it but the RNG is akin to gambling where i can’t put the game down 😭
mewtwo over charizard is the fact you play it off rip as a basic and gets online at 2 mana, making it much faster than sitting on Moltres till charizard is online on top of Moltres being susceptible to Pikachu feels bad
So you talked alot about luck in card games and yeah I can agree if you have really bad luck u can straight up lose games but, managing your risk vs Reward is also a skill
the two pot of greeds and roat are really stupid and need to be banned you draw 5 dont get either other guy gets both he goes plus 2 also if they got meowth might get used
Nah, I won a game I was supposed to lose ( star/graninja ex is broken ), and I won with my blast blastoise deck with no misty, I kept putting him to sleep and his rng was so bad he only woke up on my turn. But a dubs a dub, it be like that when it be like that ya know wha I'm sayin
3:35 I don’t really know much about the Pokémon tcg so I can’t say this with 100% confidence but I feel like as the game progresses more strategy will be involved in Pokémon pocket. Right now it’s I’ll say 100% luck based but as new cards come in with different effects I feel as if that will very much change. I’m saying this as a yugioh player because that’s kinda how duel links was at the start. You get a lucky hand with the right cards and you win, But now here in 2024 it involves way more strategy and thinking But of course at the end of the day it will always involve some type of luck. Thats kinda my opinion on this take dumbed down
It's honestly dependent on the card game take yugioh now a days it's been built to a point where if ur deck bricks it's most likely just a bad deck build cause most usable meta decks can pop off and get to what they need period
The difference between a good TCG player and a great one is their ability to see winning lines through multiple turns in the future and playing to your outs no matter the situation. Deck building is a completely separate skill that you can be good at.
ive played over 5 different card games in my life, there is a skill threshold to where rng is your greatest enemy BUT there is a ceiling beyond that where you ride the rng wave and either make you play based on most common rng, or playing against your the strongest version of your enemy, you never know what theyve got but you know your outs, you know your odds, and you then act accordingly making plays to maximize good luck and minimize the bad
31:45 Actually pokemon don’t heal when they evolve it’s just the next stage has higher hp. If machamp is 180 hp and machoke is 100 then if your machoke gets hit for 30 and then you evolve it the hp will go from 180-30=150 hp. Basically just subtract the dmg your Pokemon takes from the next stage and that’s what you get when you evolve
It'll click for him sooner or later.
Like other people have said, the skill in card games like Pocket is about playing toward your outs, and in conjunction with that, playing around your opponent's outs. Examples in Pocket are healing to avoid getting KO-ed by Gio, not evolving or not putting down mons to play around Sabrina, etc. What can seem like little adjustments can make a big impact in the game.
Also want to mention resource management. In Pocket and other games where you ramp up resources, putting an energy on the wrong mon at the wrong time can straight up lose you the game.
Speaking for myself on TCG Pocket in particular, the RNG can absolutely define the game and the experience.
The Coin Flips alone possess some of the strongest effects in the game (if you get heads).
Normal Moltres - 130 Damage
Normal Articuno - Paralysis
Moltres EX - Free Energy
Misty - Free Energy
Any Card with Sleep - 50/50 Coin Flip on whether you can attack or retreat for the turn.
Marowak EX - 160 Damage
And that’s just the coin flips.
I don’t think u actually gain health back when u evolve. It’s just equals however much health u lost before u evolved. Like if growlith gets hit with a 20 and goes down to 50 when u evolve he’ll be at 130 health cuz 150-20=130. I think that’s how it works
Indeed how it works 👌🏾
Indeed how it works 👌🏾
As someone who has been a competitive tcg player for about 20 years I'll let you in on how to minimize your reliance on luck.
There will always be luck and rng, but the better players will often win more times than not. That's because you reduce the need for luck in the deck building process by making it as consistent as possible and learn what the best lines are when you're in a disadvantageous position and not just always trying to do the same thing every game. Tcg's aren't just ability to play, but at least 1/3 of the skill involved is deck building ability. This is less true nowadays where everyone just copies people that already perform well, but before the days of everything being posted on the internet the same day they win an event, if you weren't a good deck builder you weren't a good card game player. These players are called net deckers and there are more of them now than good deck builders. The reason I bring this point up is because it's often the good deck builders who win events with their deck to make the decks popular for everyone who isn't as good to copy, so being a good deck builder gives you an advantage still, especially when cards are new or the meta hasn't been fully solved yet. I will admit there are good net deckers who can play very well and once they have a good deck in their hands they can perform, but they will always have a slight disadvantage going against something that hasn't ever been seen before, especially if what they haven't seen is an actually competent deck.
This game has a bit more luck than most tcgs with a lot of coin flips on cards and nothing is going to help if they open with a Misty on turn 1 and flip 3+ heads. That's when you just scoop and go next. This is why all tcg matches are best of 3, to reduce variance and the chance of winning and advancing through a tournament on sheer luck.
I wouldn't say card games have a lower skill ceiling just a different one, cause just picking up the best deck isn't necessarily if you're making bad plays, and it is possible to just get outplayed by someone with a worse deck. Luck of draw to some extent can be minimalized with skilled deck building, and playing through a bad hand takes some skill as well. Obviously a different type of skill than the quick reflex skills needed for fighting or shooting games but skill all the same. Pokemon is a bad example though because of how prevalent coin flips are which adds an additional layer luck that makes it feel like skill doesn't matter if you get lucky, also evolutions means you not only have to draw the right cards but you have to draw them in the right order too, so yeah this game is a rng nightmare
All this pokemon content makes me want to watch Lotus try a nuzlocke
YGO is in my opinion (and i might be biassed) the highest skill ceiling tcg out there. The way its played competatively is very centered around the extra deck being options you can use to answer anything your opponent does. It reduces A LOT of the rng factor that i normally see in other tcg's, and turns a game's outcome to who was better prepared and who had the better theory-crafting. The only argument of rng being needed is the ratio of drawing engine:non-engine in a ygo starting hand (you typically wanna see 1 starter, 1 extender, and 2-3 non-engine)
10:17 There's no such thing as luck, Lotus was skilled enough to get 3 tails and win the match. It's always been skill based
30:28 the advantage with mewtwo is the combo with gardevoir being able to do his "ultimate" attack every turn is the only thing I could think of.
There's definitely luck based factors that completely control certain games (like Vanguard) but most other TCG's, especially the big 3 (Pokémon, Yugioh, Magic) reward a player with superior deck crafting and an eye to see their own lines to victory while playing through their opponents. Much like in a fighting game being able to read yourself and the situation can help you along. Sure there's a limit with RNG at play but it's not as heavily weighed in a lot of games.
You have not been informed correctly on which card to start, but im happy you are winning. Moltress always Starts because it gives Energy to your bench. Then you swap into your bench after they're ready
I definitely agree about everything you said, and yeah fighting games. Do you have more of a ceiling than card games but both take skill to a certain degree. For card games I would say it’s more strategy as you set for deck building and knowing your opponents decks and combos and what not to counter them like in Yu-Gi-Oh, there’s a lot of combos and floodgates and trapped and spell so you need to use your cards accordingly to make your neck act well and your opponent or just win straight up
I’ve been playing a less refined version of this deck since the game came out (no re card and potion for a second growlithe and Sabrina) and it’s super strong imho and I think works in this meta, especially since pikachu EX is sitting at 120 which can be one shot by both boss mons.
The key to building your deck is to ensure that every card you draw can contribute to your strategy, even if it's not perfect. The goal is to create a situation that can stall your opponent for a while. It's important to understand both your own game plan and to anticipate what your opponent is trying to achieve.
The rng in this game specifically is so worse compared to literally any other. Someone who knows what they’re doing will brick exponentially less because their decks are designed specifically not to. Formats will usually support this, but this game is just basically pure luck for right now at least. Needs more or better support cards/ cards that don’t use coins.
Yea I got pissed and ran a machamp,hitmonlee/chan deck and got like 7 wins in a row. It’s unbelievable how consistent it is and I don’t need no wack coins to ruin my games
@ I tried out a machamp and marowak deck and the amount of times I lost because I hit double tails was unbelievable lol. I gotta try that out sometime.
@@OceanAlchemist trust me I feel you. I stopped using marowak simply because of the rng. With the hit bros you can hit for 30 anywhere on the field and machamp literally crushes everything else. It’s like the fighting type version of a Blaine rush deck
@@KodexKat damn that sounds good. I couldn’t get a second Sabrina forever so I just gave in and crafted one so that’s perfect
@@OceanAlchemist you about to go crazy lol I might add a second Sabrina in the deck too just to force a ko with Lee
My favorite pokemon is arcanine and when the game came out I built a very similar deck to this except I only had one arcanine and moltres due to pulling only one of each. But I was touting to my brothers that I think it’s the best deck so I feel validated. Thanks, lotus!
I definitely agree about everything you said, and yeah fighting games. Do you have more of a ceiling than card games but both take skill to a certain degree. For card games I would say it’s more strategy as you set for deck building and knowing your opponents decks and combos and what not to counter them like in Yu-Gi-Oh, there’s a lot of combos and floodgates and trapped and spell so you need to use your cards accordingly to make your deck acts well and your opponent or just wind straight Up
This is why I like yugioh better. In yugioh, my mindset has always been regardless of what I draw for my opening hand. I need to have something I can do to survive to the next turn. It's hard to brick in duel links and master duel, but I've found it very easy to brick in this game regardless of what I try to do. Starting with only 1 Pokémon while going first and then dying upon the opponents first or 2nd turn is really common online
Bricking in MD definitely ain’t hard but there’s more variety in those games than this tho. And it’s actually harder to brick in this game since you automatically start with a basic and with everyone most likely running 2 pokeball and 2 prof research you’ll have some type of start up. The problem is that it limits you to 20 cards and 2 of each and that’s causes you to not have an evolution or out after a few draws. Plus the opponent hits you when you aren’t ready it’s just a mess rn. They need to introduce more cards asap because meta slaves are just stomping the casual game into the dirt
@@KodexKatreally limited to 12-14 cards when you consider the mandatory (Professor’s Research, Pokeball, Sabrina, ect). The variance deck to deck is super limited like you said
@ yea I’m ngl I put the same 11 support cards in every deck and it’s annoying not having the proper space needed. Idk what card game has a deck count this low and is still played today
Pulled my Daily pack and got the Full Art Giovanni! Thanks for the vibes Lotus
When you evolve a pokemon, it takes into account current remaining HP AND how much additional max HP the evo has, eg:- Growlithe had 10 HP remaining out of 70, Arcanine increases the 70 threshold to 150 (ie, +80 max health). Therefore, your new Arcanine HP post evo is (10+80)/(70+80 )= 90/150.
Rng for me makes wins more fun and losses hurt less. Because like what are you going to do if you don't draw the card you need. But like getting bad odds to work is really fun.
Also I think card games do have a high skill ceiling when it comes to deck building. But maybe not so much during combat when compared to fps or other games. But I definitely think card games are more open to people who are new to the games, especially older people.
Also keeping up with the meadows during point for both types of games. Especially where there is ranks involved.
Nah that last match had yelling at my sceeen XD
Still a goated vid lotus. Still had a good run of matches
Deck building and planning several steps ahead for outs plays such an important part in this game. I enjoy it, but sometimes that luck factor just hits you with a hard “NO”
I see that you're still learning so here are some tips:
1.- The first game you were able to win faster if you saved your Sabrina instead to use it right away
2.- If you evolve a pokemon who has some damage the damage is still the same when evolving for example, if a pokemon with 50hp get attacked for 10hp so now is 40hp then if the evolution is 100hp the pokemon will get 90hp when evolved
3.- No matter what matchup you are you always want to put Moltres in front, that deck is high risk high reward and puting Moltres in the bench is like having Misty in a water deck and not using it
Chance is a big factor for sure, but a lot of skill comes in deck building to make chance less of a factor and more consistent games
I remember commenting on a UA-camrs channel in reply to a comment about pikachu. They were running og zard. Told them to add arcanine. Good to know I had a feeling it was a good card. I was nervous about the 20 damage but it’s irrelevant against most decks
Id say it really depends on the card game, luck is definitely always a factor, but some games, like yugioh, there are so many decks that have a lot of "starter" and "consistency" cards, it makes skill take the forefront to winning a game.
As an MTG player, redundancy in that game is key. Having ways to get your win con out asap is crucial and basically force your opponent to play your game instead of theirs.
The amount of times I've accidently put energy on the wrong pokemon... Great games, Lotus! I've not played a deck so half and half between Pokemon and Items/Supporters. That might be my own bad deck building though. What's your typical ratio?
if you ever get bored with youtube maybe try radio/podcasting. you got a nice voice man i’m jealous lol also, rng is why i put down VGC. flinches, paralysis, burn chance, freeze chance, FUCKING SLEEP, crits, misses, dmg calculations are all infuriating on the bad receiving end.
The charizard was the first pack I invested in going in completely blind since im a sucker for the fire lizard ever since 1995 glad to see the boy back
I love TCGs they’ve always been so fun to me. There is a degree of skill. Top players don’t make many if any mistakes most games though. I’d say card games it’s more strategic than skill. That being said you are still rewarded for playing good. Pokémon is probably the most luck based and some games basically take luck out of the game after your opening hands. In Pokemon pocket it feels worse because of the evolution feature. Making bricks more likely. Other games constructing a deck the has barley any bricks isn’t that hard.
24:10 however much you lost on the pre evolved is how you will lose when you evolve
100hp - 50 damgae
50hp left
Evolved pokemon with 200hp
200hp - 50
150 after evolving it
Lobing the pokemon pocket content lotus, you growlithe goof
Yea, luck is that X factor. You can set up a deck to put out certain cards or get your win cons ASAP. Knowing your opponents' gameplay def helps even if you're not getting the cards you need. If you can stall or stop your opponent, you can buy yourself time. Depends on the game of course.
i personally feel like TCGs have a higher skill level because of all that goes into it and it differs from game to game, but i do agree that RNG can really dominate success or failure
I eat Mewtwo's and Pikachu's for breakfast. Easily my weakest decks and they are decentlu stacked. Fire is SO GOOD which I love because I main Fire Types in the Pokemon video games. I got all the Charizards except the immersive one, and I have been GRINDING for Arcanine for DAYS! Imma have to use my points. Anyways this game is pretty addicting, especially if you played or collected Pokemon Cards as a kid
Chill dude. Nioce
I guess I’m technically playing Meta in a way the most fun I have is running rapidash/ninetails Blaine decks lol. It’s probably the strongest non ex deck imo but somehow still feels weak sometimes to most decks. The one time I try to run charizard ex moltres I ran into a cool gardevoir jynx deck that rocked my shit lol
Having only played Yugioh & Magic the luck factor in this game seems unusually large. Maybe newer card will come out and change that, but a lot of these games I'm watching really come down to who has the best luck.
Right now the best you can do is fix the card ratios correct to limit how much you brick.
I reckon the crown rares should’ve been the immersives in shiny form (all mons in the video are shiny). Black charizard would be sick af.
Watching that first game was painful
Trust me
Arcanine is one of my favorite pokemon and i was gonna run the deck regardless im so glad it relevant baybee
the damage amount stays the same equivalent to the pokemon health so if a staryu takes 20 dmg its goes from 50-30 and when u evolve it to starmie ex itll have 110 of its 130 cause it still took 20dmg
Game 1 you needed to put that energy on moltress. Use the energy ability to get extra energy for Zard, you shoulda kept charmander instead of evolving and used x speed, brought Zard in to destroy his card and you clap each card he brings in and keep using moltress energy gathering ability to keep Zard attacking
34:40 That right there is why I switched from Moltres/Charizard to an Aggro Blaine Rapidash/Ninetails deck, Less coin flip bullshit.
Don't usually comment, but I'll do it for the one time. Growlith Goof
Ma boy try a double dragonite deck it’s super fun man
My favorite deck just so happens to also be the best deck? We take those ❤️🔥❤️🔥❤️🔥
Same ratios too is INSANE 😂😂😂
2:50 usually card games are mostly strategy and just purely about outskilling but right now the game has so few cards and so few consistency boosters that it is kinda rng. Rng and also tier placements cause there’s a clear hierarchy of decks atm and there’s few actual flex options decks can run that help the weaker side of the game so the game can feel incredibly rng at times or just a complete wash cause your deck is simply worse
Objectively they are easier but I don’t skill ceiling is the right term. Understanding how to play this game well is a skill. It’s just other games have an execution barrier
Personally i would take out a moltres EX and add another growlithe
You dont need Moltres EX save for the one time and having two arcanines can be more beneficial
If not then replace with a gio or a sabrina
TCG Pocket is a poor first impression when it comes to skill in tcgs. In other games, skill expression not only comes from identifying win cons, but also knowing how to sequence your plays during your turn to maximize the draw potential for a particular result, or playing around the scenario where you miss what you’re trying to draw.
As fast as it is, the current standard format in pokemon’s main tcg has a lot of room for skill expression with a deck like gardevoir ex, miraidon ex, terapagos dusknoir, or regidraco vstar
Ex mew was dead the first card I pulled in this, good to know he’s apparently good
I don't think rng necessarily "lowers" the skill ceiling. You still need a lot of knowledge to play the game optimally with energy, the numerous decisions, and the decision to rely on that rng. It does make games way more unstable and sacky, though. Pocket is just the most unstable game. So many decks fall apart with bad rng, but there's skill also in deciding if you want more stability or power.
There's RNG to this game, yes, but this is a condensed version of a card game. Most of the other major cards I'm aware of have various ways to get to what you need to do your plays so the amount of RNG is actually significantly lower than one might expect at a glance.
15:41 Ngl, I feel like the microphone is rigged for whenever you ask for three tails for the opponent to immediately give 3 heads. Seen it happen too many times.
ngl i feel like dropping the potion for another growlithe would help this deck a lot seems rough if you lose the only one you got off rip
Rn the meta supports the high risk high reward playstyle, the card pool is too small and too simple to manipulate your chances for solid strategies, instead we have general game plans hoping for good coin flips.
This is also why mewtwo and Pikachu were considered the best decks for the longest time, they have the least amount of rng with high attack power.
Game 2 you shoulda used moltress ability and stack energy on charmander before you used x speed and retreated
Edit: you should of also been using moltress ability every turn and keep stacking energy on Zard on the bench
I’ve always preferred turn based over fast paced. ie Honkai star rail over genshin impact, pokemon and yugioh over fighter/shooter games. One takes thinking and one takes hand eye coordination and reflexes. We all have different skills and preferences. I suck at shooter games. I’m good at card games.
I'm starting to not like stage 2 pokemon, the game makes me brick enough as is, not seeing the stage 1/2 or seeing it a turn to late is infuriating, we seriously need the ultra ball support card or something, plz just give me more consistency.
Also going first is so ass, there's zero benefit, being able to evolve your pokemon a turn earlier than your opponent is a mix bag if not kinda useless.
Why did you not switch the Moltres EX to Charmander in front so it would set upnenergy at the backline instead of charging energy your Charmander at the back?
Built this deck and its significantly worse than my usual charizard deck. Arcanine was a dead card in my hand everytime i drew it. The arcanine build lost to a dark deck while my charizard with no arcanine build just took down a fully fed mewtwo ex with gardevoir on the bench with no problem.
I give at least 2 energy to moltress just so i’m able to switch him out when either my charizard or arcanine is ready
when you evolve your pokemon you dont heal any damage. if my staryu has 50 hp and it takes 20 damage, when i evolve into my starmie which would have had 130 hp is just 110. the damage never left. only exception are the koga cards and the fossil cards. because they have full hp recoveries when going back into your hand.
10:40 he got so unlucky, the one tike he nails his coin flip thats the knly one he got😅
It looks like they carry on the damage that they already had. So if your Pokemon takes 20 damage and you evolve them they will be missing 20HP from their evolve state.
Having played Yu-Gi-OH TCG I'd say theres damn near nowhere near the amunt of RNG in most TCGs as opposed to Pokémon. Many coin flip mechanics, no real searching options, and IRL they have a game mechanic where you remove random cards from your deck before even playing (even further RNG) .. At last in Yu-gi-oh and Pokemon (IRL TCG) there are many cards that search for specific cards which kind of cuts down some of the RNG ... But yea overalll, RNG is king so I avoid all coin flips as much as possible lol
Heart of the cards is real, bro. The best decks lose to the luck of the draw, period. Idk how often you play other Pokémon games, but even VGC has a lot of luck components. Even damage numbers aren't finite. It's just the game, I guess. Just expect to account for luck when deck building. You even see it here in the deck you're using. There's 2 Arcanine even though there's 1 Growlith. Just to give yourself the best odds to pull it when you need it.
Rng in this game and yu gi oh is insane when you brick you cooked
RNG is ruining the game for me imo. It’s demoralizing to lose simply because you missed all of your coins and your opponent hit all of theirs. At least In yugioh you don’t need to hit a coin for every good ability you want to cast. You’ll have more fun if you don’t play meta I feel like meta slaves ruin the game too esp when there’s no rank mode so no real reason to tryhard with the best decks. The best pocket videos out rn they’re playing whatever creative deck they put together and it’s definitely a good feeling when you wack a meta slave with a trash eevee deck for fun
You don't recover any health when you evolve you're pokemon you just add the health from the evolved form if you took damage before you'd still have that damage in the evolved form
I pretty much made this deck before people started using it. I dont have the second arcanine and not the exact same support and item cards, but it was very close. Why have two arcanines?
Card games have very very different levels of skill required, this pokemon game with so many coin flips, small deck size and card pool, there’s not really any room for innovation and it boils down to a ton of rng but if you play a card game like version 1 gwent or yugioh with over 10k cards and no rng effects it still will have rng because it’s the nature of a card game but you’re not beating a ycs winner 99/100 times as a new player
Some dude hit 6 heads in a row turn 1 with misty against me.
Try ponyta/rapidash and vulpix/nine tails deck with Blaine it’s free real estate unless u brick
Imagine tcg like the regular game. Play around the crit
The WHOLE POINT of moltress is to put 1 energy on it and use the ability every single turn to stack energy on your bench! Everytime you put energy on charmander instead I’m yelling at my phone like nooooo put it on moltress for the ability plsssss! 😅
Coming from Yugioh where luck is minimized GREATLY and then playing PocketTCG where you can live and die by coinflips…i sort of hate it but the RNG is akin to gambling where i can’t put the game down 😭
I still think the starmie and Greninja deck is the best to use rn
Evolving isn't healing anything technically. You have a higher base hp but the damage taken is the same.
mewtwo over charizard is the fact you play it off rip as a basic and gets online at 2 mana, making it much faster than sitting on Moltres till charizard is online on top of Moltres being susceptible to Pikachu feels bad
23:40 it has to be an electric pokemon
Man idk how you pulling 1 heads every turn lol I ain’t ever
I feel like Sekiro takes more skill to win in than Uno 😂😂
you could have used potion on your moltres as pikachu would never have had enough damage even with a giovanni
*edit: you realized it lol
No daima review?
bro gave up on sparking to lol 😹
So you talked alot about luck in card games and yeah I can agree if you have really bad luck u can straight up lose games but, managing your risk vs Reward is also a skill
the two pot of greeds and roat are really stupid and need to be banned you draw 5 dont get either other guy gets both he goes plus 2 also if they got meowth might get used
Nah, I won a game I was supposed to lose ( star/graninja ex is broken ), and I won with my blast blastoise deck with no misty, I kept putting him to sleep and his rng was so bad he only woke up on my turn. But a dubs a dub, it be like that when it be like that ya know wha I'm sayin
This deck meta? I’ve been running something very similar since release on accident lmao
Anyone got a link to the tournament video if there is one
3:35 I don’t really know much about the Pokémon tcg so I can’t say this with 100% confidence but I feel like as the game progresses more strategy will be involved in Pokémon pocket. Right now it’s I’ll say 100% luck based but as new cards come in with different effects I feel as if that will very much change. I’m saying this as a yugioh player because that’s kinda how duel links was at the start. You get a lucky hand with the right cards and you win, But now here in 2024 it involves way more strategy and thinking But of course at the end of the day it will always involve some type of luck. Thats kinda my opinion on this take dumbed down
Can't get a Charizard EX for the life of me.
It's honestly dependent on the card game take yugioh now a days it's been built to a point where if ur deck bricks it's most likely just a bad deck build cause most usable meta decks can pop off and get to what they need period